MIDDLE EAST: Just two weeks after completing an unprecedented offensive in the West Bank designed to prevent suicide bombings against its civilians, Israel is again coming under such attacks daily, and the United States is gearing up for another attempt at diplomatic intervention.
Suicide bombings were running at one a day in late March, prompting April's massive "Operation Defensive Shield" - an onslaught which saw Israeli troops penetrating deep into Palestinian cities and refugee camps. But although that operation yielded a brief fall-off in the bombings, partly because of intelligence information obtained through thousands of arrests, it also increased the bombers' motivation, the Israeli Defence Minister, Mr Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, has acknowledged. He said Israel is again being targeted by "waves" of suicide bombers.
In the latest such attack, yesterday morning, a security guard at a Tel Aviv nightclub fired at a car, speeding towards the entrance, which proved to be filled with explosives. "I instinctively pushed aside three people who were standing outside," said Eli Federman, the guard at "Studio 49," where about 200 Israelis were enjoying a night out. "I fired off one bullet and the car exploded. Then I fired another two bullets at his head."
Another major blast was averted on Thursday morning, when explosives blew up a fuel tanker at Israel's main depot, but did not ignite the huge stores of fuel. On Wednesday, two Israelis were killed in a suicide bombing south of Tel Aviv. On Sunday, three Israelis were blown up in a suicide bombing in Netanya. And the Israeli army claims to have thwarted 20 more such bombings in the course of May.
Although the Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat is calling for a halt to the attacks, some are being carried by groups loyal to him: Both yesterday's and Wednesday's bombings, for instance, were claimed by the Al-Aksa Brigades, affiliated to Mr Arafat's Fatah faction. In both cases, the bombers said they were avenging the deaths of Al-Aksa militants in recent Israeli attacks.
Aides to Mr Arafat say they are almost powerless to thwart the bombers because of the destruction of PA security installations in the course of the Israeli offensive - an assertion rejected by Israel's Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon. But the Israeli army is also proving less than 100 per cent successful, despite daily raids into Palestinian areas. In one such raid, in Tulkarm yesterday, armed Palestinian fired at an armoured personnel carrier, and the soldiers fired back; four Palestinians, one a toddler, were injured, as were two soldiers.
Mr Ben-Eliezer has warned that any gains from April's military operation will be obviated if there is no swift return to the negotiating table. And the Bush administration now seems set to intervene - preparing to despatch CIA chief Mr George Tenet to oversee the streamlining of Mr Arafat's numerous security apparatuses into one effective hierarchy; and Assistant Secretary of State, Mr William Burns, to try and woo Mr Arafat and Mr Sharon into some kind of dialogue.
The US is also still formally committed to arranging a regional conference later this summer, to advance American-Saudi efforts for a wider series of Israeli-Arab peace accords - however improbable that would appear in the current climate.
Mr Arafat is apparently contemplating holding elections this winter - to satisfy domestic and international pressure. But Mr Sharon, many of his ministers and much of the army's top brass are making clear they want nothing to do with the Palestinian leader - whom they insist is an obstacle to peace. Mr Arafat and his asides, needless to say, argue along similar lines regarding Mr Sharon.